NHL sets Jan. 11 deadline

With a hard deadline confirmed for either salvaging or scrapping what remains of the NHL season, labor negotiations resumed Monday with a more peaceful tone than last time and the anticipation of progress in today’s meetings.

The locked-out NHL Players’ Association presented the league with a counterproposal to the NHL’s 288-page offer from Thursday.

Speaking to reporters outside the league offices in Manhattan, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman termed the NHLPA’s response "comprehensive," and said it would be reviewed overnight before the sides reconvened today at about noon.

At the same time, Bettman confirmed publicly there was a Jan. 19 drop dead date to begin a 48-game season, which means a Jan. 11 deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

Bettman and NHLPA executive director Don Fehr were short in their public comments Monday. The NHLPA Executive Board has until Wednesday to exercise its right to file a disclaimer of interest – the union would no longer represent the players, who would be free to pursue individual antitrust suits against the league – but Fehr said only that the union was keeping its options open.

Fehr also would not comment on whether he thought the sides were any closer to a deal to end the lockout, now in its 108th day, nor would he detail the NHLPA’s counterproposal.

The sides were meeting face to face for the first time since acrimonious sessions that included federal mediators Dec. 12-13.

The NHL’s most recent proposal moved toward the players on several issues. The league increased its proposed limit on contract length from five years to six – seven for players re-signing with their own team – though the NHLPA is seeking an eight-year limit. The NHL also upped its year-to-year variance within contracts from 5 to 10 percent and also agreed to one compliance buyout per team prior to the 2013-14 season, though the NHLPA is not happy that buyout would still count against the players’ share of hockey-related revenue even if they wouldn’t count against the salary cap.

The NHL is seeking to go to a $60 million salary cap for 2013-14 after this season’s pro-rated cap of $70.2 million, while the NHLPA would likely prefer to see that figure at about $67 million.

The players are also concerned with how much of their salaries would go toward escrow.

Monday’s session was a continuation of a process that started this weekend after the NHLPA received the NHL proposal.

The legal teams for both sides spent Saturday and Sunday reviewing and clarifying points in the proposal before the NHLPA began an internal meeting that lasted until Sunday evening.